To Monon Tis Zois Tou Taxidio which translates to "The Only Journey of His Life" is a Greek film which I had the pleasure of seeing this spring. The synopsis provided from the Greek Film Centre, while true, doesn't really point out just how much screen time the boy has. I have never seen a cast list with enough detail to get the name of the performer who plays the author as a child. While the film as a whole isn't all that bad, the long scene where the boy listens to his grandfather spin stories is exceptional.

At the end of the 19th century the writer Georgios Vizyenos was admitted to a mental asylum in Athens. Prior to this he had an obsessive passion for twelve year-old Bettina. While in hospital he attempted to bring back memories of his childhood in Constantinople and Thrace. At the same time he read through his literary work, which is based on these memories. Reality and fiction became confused in his mind. The main character in his memories was his grandfather who spent the first ten years of his life dressed as a girl. He was forced to hide his sex in order to avoid serving in the army. Vizyenos' grandfather lived all his life in fairy tales and dreams, thus influencing the development of his grandson's psyche. The writer Georgios Vizyenos was born in Vizyi, Eastern Thrace, in 1849, and died in a mental asylum in Athens in 1896. He studied theology, philosophy and psychology in Constantinople, Cyprus, Athens and Germany. He lived in Paris and London for about two years. From April 1883 to July 1884 he published in the Athens daily "Estia" his most important short stories considered today as a landmark in contemporary Greek literature. Among these was the short story "The Only Journey of his Life" on which the film is based.

For those who worry about such things, the Bettina issue is dispensed with within the film's first five minutes.

You can find the trailer for the movie here
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Even if you can't speak a word of Greek or ever see the whole film, some of the power of the grandson/grandfather meeting is felt even in the trailer (which is able to be downloaded for future viewing).

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